﻿PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued f^lHv S Q?^« ^y '^^ 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 100 Washington: 1950 No. 3260 



PYCNOGONIDA OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY 

 ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1947-48 



By Joel W. Hedgpeth 



Although the Antarctic waters are remote from the rest of the 

 world, many elements of their fauna, including groups obscurely 

 known elsewhere, are better known than are those of more accessible 

 parts of the globe. This is especially true of the Pycnogonida, which 

 have been the subject of several elaborate monographs, culminating 

 in the recent comprehensive papers of Dr. Isabella Gordon, of the 

 British Museum. Indeed, these curious little animals are perhaps 

 better known in the Antarctic than anywhere else in the world, except 

 in the waters adjacent to northern Europe. Certainly there is no other 

 place from which a collection of 157 specimens, comprising 22 species 

 in all, would reveal but one undescribed form. 



The collections made by the United States Navy Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion of 1947^8 are, for the most part, from regions already well- 

 studied. Of the 19 stations represented, 12 are from the vicinity 

 of Peter I Island and Marguerite Bay on the western side of the 

 Palmer Peninsula. The other stations are scattered from the Boss 

 Sea to the Davis Sea along the coast of that vaguely defined area known 

 as Wilkes Land. As Antarctic collections go, this collection is rather 

 small, yet it provides a few extensions in range and an opportunity to 

 clarify the status of a species of Nymphon previously known only 

 from female specimens. In addition to this material from the Navy 

 Antarctic Expedition, there is in the collections of the National 

 Museum a small collection from South Georgia of uncertain prove- 

 nance and some lots collected at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. 



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